Thomas Breen is well known in business circles of Utica as president and treasurer of the Thomas Breen Company, plumbing and heating contractors, an enterprise which he established thirty-five years ago. His birth occurred in Floyd, Oneida county, New York, on the 12th of December, 1863, his parents being Charles and Bridget Breen, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The father emigrated with his wife and family to the United States in 1860, landing in Trenton, New York, in the month of August. They located on a farm near Holland Patent, Oneida county, this state, and there Charles Breen engaged in agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1904. He met with excellent success in his undertakings and spent the remainder of his life in honorable retirement in Utica, where his wife also passed away. He was a devout communicant of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church and gave his political support to the republican party where national questions and issues were involved but always cast an independent ballot at township and municipal elections. To him and his wife were born seven children.
Thomas Breen was a young man of twenty-two when he came to Utica in 1885 and it was four years later that he organized the Thomas Breen Company, for the conduct of a plumbing and heating contracting business at No. 414 Lafayette street. He has been the president and treasurer of the concern from the beginning, his associate officers being his two brothers, Charles J. and John Arthur Breen, who occupy the positions of secretary and vice president, respectively. Enterprising, progressive and thoroughly reliable, Thomas Breen has developed a business of extensive and profitable proportions and has long been numbered among the most successful contractors in his line in Utica.
On the 29th of June, 1892, Mr. Breen was united in marriage to Miss Louisa M. Mulligan, who departed this life in 1914, leaving a daughter, Mary Louisa, who was born in 1902. On the 23d of June, 1920, Mr. Breen was again married, his second union being with Ella Mae Flynn of Oswego, New York.
Fraternally Mr. Breen is identified with the Knights of Columbus, in which he has attained the fourth degree, while for the past twenty-eight years he has been a member of Division No. 2 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, of which he served as president for sixteen years. He was also president of the Holy Name Society of St. Patrick from 1910 until 1918. A lifelong resident of Oneida county, he has become widely and favorably known here and enjoys an enviable reputation as one of the representative business men and highly esteemed citizens of Utica.